A Saudi rubber recycling company is diversifying its business to produce liquid rubber that it can sell to manufacturers of automobile spare parts and a range of other goods including speed bumpers.

Al Khobar-based Saudi Rubber Products Company (Sarpco) currently operates a successful business in recycling rubber from waste tyres and converting them into safety rubber flooring.
Sales and marketing manager Zakariya Iskandarani said the liquid rubber plant would become operational later this year.
“Waste tyres would be broken up into extremely fine pieces and mixed with polyurethane and other chemicals prior to sale to companies,” he said.
“There is a price advantage in this kind of recycled rubber as the synthetic content is low and therefore less expensive than material using higher quantities of synthetic materials.”
The company has a plan to produce rubber seals some time in the future.
Iskandarani believes Sarpco will be able to compete with Chinese companies engaged in similar operations.
 The company, owned by Rashid S Al-Rashid & Sons Company and Rashid S Al Rashid, belted out a turnover of SR22 million in 2007 and expects to increase the figure by 25 per cent this year.
 It began operations in 1998 under different ownership but a few years later a fire broke out in the plant and there was no production for several months until the end of 2006. The company resumed normal operations under the current owners in 2007.
Production in 2005 was said to be around SR1.2 million.
Sarpco makes tiles and a product called pour-on-site. The used tyres from which the flooring is made are deposited by their owners at a Sarpco dump.
“Last year the company reached the milestone of 200,000 sq m for tiles. A similar area was served from the pour-on-site material,” said Iskandarani. Some of the output is exported to other GCC states and to Jordan, Syria and even the US, according to the official. He stresses that Sarpco products meet international standards and said the company was on the verge of receiving the ISO-9001/2000 credential for the quality management system.
Currently the company is implementing orders won from Al Turki Est, Al Saad Hospital, Al Othaim Group, Al Fiafir Co, Khalid Al Turki & Sons, Gulf Gateway Construction Co, Ahmed Al Mansoor, Palm Beach Resort and Al Habab Company.
Supplies are also being made to Al Majal Al Arabi, Dar Ul Uloom College, Dar Ul Uloom, Saderta, Rabiah & Nassar Cont, Al Arqam Schools, Al Hamra and Al Jude villages, Berry Floor and Abdulaziz Al Mohlem.
Sarpco hopes the rising global awareness of environmental issues will prompt the Saudi government and the private sector to consider buying its products in larger numbers.